


The Wind At Your Back

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Best Friends, Budding Love, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Grief/Mourning, POV Minor Character, Reminiscing, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22015291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: Shibuya is still alive without her.
Relationships: Eri/Misaki Shiki
Comments: 13
Kudos: 44





	The Wind At Your Back

**Author's Note:**

> ao3 user galaxyaqua at the end of 2019, suddenly remembering eri from TWEWY (2007): oh no I have to write her

Frequenting the newest cafés had always been their thing. 

To stay on top of trends as much as they could, Eri and Shiki had never let a new store slip by, and while Eri had constantly laughed that cafés had no real impact on their careers as designers, Shiki would always insist. Said it was culture, or something, and that was true, even if it wasn’t fashionista culture, wasn’t branded, wasn’t trending. Even if the coffees were expensive. 

Of course, Eri had always been weak to her, and paying too much for coffee would still be worth it for a day out with her best friend. 

(Best friend could hardly do her justice, Shiki was the single most important person Eri had ever had in her life, and she couldn’t believe she never told her before— before Shiki—)

Eri remembers the way Shiki’s eyes used to light up at the announcement of a new café, the way she’d count the days before tugging Eri through the streets of Shibuya with the warmest, warmest smile. 

She doesn’t know where she’d be without Shiki — never imagined a world where Shiki Misaki wouldn’t exist — and yet here she is, a week after the accident, and Shiki’s still gone. 

(—Shiki died.)

It doesn’t feel real. 

A new ramen shop is scheduled to open in Dogenzaka this week, and it’s not quite a café, but Eri had been doing such a good job pretending she was okay that it all hit her at once. 

Shiki isn’t going to be there. 

Shiki isn’t going to gossip with her about how the talk of the town was always so over the top, isn’t going to point out that The Prince in all his flashiness will be drawing crowds near and far if he gets his mighty princely hands on these noodles and approves of them. What a joke, but a beautiful one. He’s a beautiful guy. 

Shiki’s a beautiful girl. 

Eri misses her. Eri misses her a lot. She just keeps thinking about it. How fast it was, to have her best friend there one day and gone the next. 

She will never get a chance to point out that her glasses have been caught in her hair again, and share that tender moment where she gently tucks Shiki’s hair behind her ear, and Shiki looks stunned yet grateful. 

Her pretty eyes, dark and wide. The smile that touches her lips as her grip tightens on Mr. Mew and her gentle voice, teasing, “Keep that up and you’ll give The Prince a run for his money.”

“Did I charm you?” Eri would ask with a grin. 

“Always,” Shiki would smile back. “You charm me always.”

And Shiki, well, Shiki charmed her too. In so many wonderful, amazing ways. Her eyes, her smile, her pretty hands, her short hair, her voice, her everything. 

Shiki’s a beautiful girl. Such a beautiful girl. 

Eri’s never going to be able to tell her how much she admires her. 

Shiki’s gone. 

Like she’d never even been here. Vanished, without a second thought. The flowers left by the road have more life, and Eri can’t help but think about how unfair it is. 

How fleeting human life can be — how her best friend could disappear, just like that. 

It’s been two weeks now. 

Three weeks, and Shiki is still gone. 

She wanted Shiki to know that she was so beautiful and talented and she never meant to hurt her feelings, she should have been more careful with how her words could be heard. How Shiki, gorgeous and beautiful and sweet Shiki, would have heard them.

She was so good at what she did, that girl. Best seamstress in Shibuya, and Eri wouldn’t let anyone argue with her on that. She had met Shiki through sewing, even envied her perfect seams and her flawless patterns sometimes. Gorgeous, talented girl. 

Her best friend. 

She would always be her best friend. 

Three weeks and she misses Shiki so much she wants to break down and scream. Cry into the crowds of people that pass by, cry because nobody seems to miss her like she does. Cry because nobody seems to care that three weeks ago, Eri’s favorite person died and she didn’t even get to say goodbye. 

Shiki, Shiki, Shiki. Brown eyes, dark hair. Always a tease on her lips, always loving Eri and Eri always loved her so, so much. 

She had been so reckless with her. 

She shouldn’t have been so reckless. 

Not with Shiki. Never with Shiki. 

The world keeps moving without her. The world keeps moving. Shibuya is still alive without her. It doesn’t feel like it should be. 

How can the city be moving on so quickly? Don’t they realize what they’ve lost? Why doesn’t anyone realize?

The flowers at the scene of the accident are gone. 

Swept away. Probably cleaned up, mistaken for litter. 

She can’t walk down that street anymore. 

She doesn’t know what she’ll do if she looks back at that empty space, and thinks about how Shiki must have felt. Maybe it was a quick accident. Maybe it was painless. 

She should have been there. Why wasn’t she there?

Eri keeps smiling through it all, but the bustling streets of Shibuya seem empty without Shiki with her. She has other friends to fill the time with, but it isn’t the same. 

She can’t stay long when they hang out. They don’t think Shiki mattered. No, they do, Eri always says the wrong things, but they didn’t miss her like Eri did. 

Nobody was ever as close to Shiki as Eri was. Shiki must have been so lonely. 

Eri hates that Shiki must have been so lonely. 

It doesn’t matter now. 

Shiki’s gone and Eri’s alone. 

She can’t dwell on what-ifs and if-onlys forever. She knows that. Doesn’t change the fact that it hurts but she knows that. 

So she takes a generous walk to WildKat — one of Shiki’s old favorite cafés — and sits down to order herself overpriced coffee. Almost orders two. Almost takes a table for two, but remembers, and quickly smooths out her skirt and sits by the window instead. For one. 

The owner smiles at her as he slides her order onto the table, and she thanks him and tries not to let her melancholy slip through. 

Eri owes it to Shiki to stay positive. 

And she will! She really will! But she can’t yet. Not when it’s all so new to her, not when she has to walk these familiar streets and see these familiar faces and Shiki won’t be there. 

Shiki won’t be there. 

She falls asleep at the café, exhausted. Grieving does that to a person. Exhaustion, she means. It’s a whole thing, being tired out from crying and tired out from being tired out. All that jazz. All that jazz. 

She misses Shiki so much. 

Time rewinds when she’s asleep. Eri doesn’t know it. Eri doesn’t see Shibuya collapse, doesn’t remember buying that red skull pin, doesn’t remember the red eyes, doesn’t remember any of it. Doesn’t know about the UG, doesn’t know about the whole life after death thing. 

Of course Eri doesn’t know. 

Eri thinks she’s asleep. 

Eri is asleep. 

Exhausted, tired, all that jazz. 

She sees Shiki, but it isn’t Shiki. It’s her. It’s her and she’s crying, Eri facing Eri, and actually it _is_ Shiki, but Eri doesn’t know that. 

Eri is asleep. 

Eri wakes up to a tap on her shoulder. 

* * *

“Hey there,” Shiki greets, waving a hand in her face. She looks different. She looks the same, but she looks different. She _feels_ different. “You okay there? You totally passed out at WildKat, Eri. What’s up with that? Too many late nights studying? Girl, you’re smart. You don’t need to do yourself like that.”

Eri feels the tears spring to her eyes before she can stop them, and even Shiki can’t keep up as she flings her arms around her best friend — _god she had thought she had lost her forever, Shiki had died, died, died, thank god it was just a dream_ — and holds her tight. 

Shiki laughs, present and familiar and so, so _alive_. 

(It doesn’t feel like it was a dream. It feels like Shiki died and was dead for weeks before she came back to life, but Eri doesn’t know that. It’s probably the late nights studying. She’s smart. She doesn’t have to do herself like that.)

“Okay, okay, wow, what a hug,” Shiki pats Eri on the back, snuggling into her embrace. It feels like it’s been weeks since she’s held Shiki like this, so she holds on, and on and on. Shiki’s voice is ever so gentle in her ear, even as she teases, “Have you been lifting weights, Eri? I swear designer work can’t make you this strong. Killer grip, girl! Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Eri shakes as she laughs, and it’s almost like a cry of relief. “Please, there’s nothing that could get me to start lifting. Trust me.”

Her laugh returns, sweet and true. She’s just Shiki, same old Shiki, but she’s so much more than that. 

“Well, I trust you on that one. But you’re still way stronger than I remember. And prettier, too. I think your look really suits you, you know? Very Eri. Not very Shiki. I don’t remember you being this tall either.”

“Shiki,” she murmurs, not certain if it’s an observation she should be making aloud. “You say that like we haven’t seen each other in ages.”

“Oh, leave me to my dramatics!” Shiki laments, rubbing her back. Almost inaudible, she mutters under her breath, “You lug around dumb reckless boys for a few weeks, you’re bound to have aged at least a couple of years.”

“Have you been dating someone?” Eri teases, only catching the statement about boys and feeling a strange tightness in her chest because of it. She shakes it off. “Is that why it feels like we’ve been so far apart?”

Shiki groans. “No, Eri, _god._ First of all, they’re all emotionally constipated morons. Second of all, if I had, you’d be the first to know. Promise.”

“Promise?”

“Of course,” Shiki says, and for a moment Eri feels the air tense, feels the lump forming in her throat as she wonders if this is the dream and she’ll wake up and Shiki will be gone. Quietly, Shiki asks, “You’re my best friend, aren’t you?”

Eri pulls back just to see her face. Shiki’s eyes are a little glassy, but neither of them shed a tear, and Eri thinks that’s all for the better, because she doesn’t know how she’d explain what she’s been through. 

Doesn’t know how to explain the fact that Shiki doesn’t feel like she’s really here. That she feels like flowers on the side of the road, and Eri feels like weeks of grief burning regrets in her stomach, all hidden behind a smile. 

Just like always, Shiki seems to understand, even without the need for words.

“You don’t have to say anything, Eri.”

“I do,” Eri leaps into life, cupping Shiki’s cheeks and watching her soft face scrunch into the most adorably confused expression ever. “I do! I’m your best friend and you’re mine! You’re mine, you hear me?”

“Oh my god,” Shiki laughs. “Is this how our friendship is gonna be now? Me belonging to you?”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Eri says, and she means it but it all sounds like, wow, way to be clingy, Eri. “You mean the world to me.”

“Sap. Sap sap sap,” Shiki accuses, tapping her on the nose with each one. “The world doesn’t end with me, Eri, and you know it. But you know I’m your best friend and that’ll never change. I’m yours. You’re mine. Simple as that, right?”

Eri nods. Eri wants to cry but doesn’t. 

“Really, Eri,” she smiles, blinking away the last of the tears from her eyes, and reaching forward to tuck Eri’s cherry hair behind her ear. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m so glad you’re here.” Eri blurts. “Shiki, you know I mean it, right? I really do. I don’t know what I’d be… without you.” 

“Aww,” Shiki giggles, waving her hand, blushing pink. Such a cute face, Eri can’t stop looking at it. “I don’t know what I’d be without you, either, you know.”

“I mean it, girl. You’re special. Sometimes, I wonder if you can see that.”

“I believe you when you say these things,” Shiki says, and somehow that’s enough. “I trust you, Eri. I’m sorry if you ever thought otherwise.”

“Never have, never will,” Eri beams at her, pinching her cheeks. “Stress less, live more. We’re a team, we’ve got to look out for each other.”

“You’re right.” Shiki replies quietly, and there’s such a maturity in her expression all of a sudden that Eri lets go of her cheeks, embarrassed to have been so childish. Her worries fade away when Shiki smiles. “We’ll always have each other.”

“Always.” Eri affirms with a nod. Then, suddenly remembering that she had in fact been sleeping in the café, she gasped. “Wait, how long was I out?! I can’t believe I fell asleep here, that’s so awkward!”

“Well, according to the boss, you’ve been sleeping for at least two hours,” Shiki’s giggle almost makes the mortification worth it. “But I’m sure nobody has noticed.”

“Girl, where were you?!” Eri asks, grabbing onto her shoulders as Shiki bursts into laughter. “You know I don’t go to your expensive cafés alone, so you must have been watching, right? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Well, I went on a little adventure actually, but I’ll tell you about it later,” Shiki says, and extends her hand out. Eri takes it. There couldn’t be a chance in the world she wouldn’t. So weak to this girl. “Come on. There’s some people I want you to meet.”


End file.
